We have a pond on our property, but I think the bees mostly use a couple of drainage pipes right near the hives. I've seen them there anyway. My father in law also just put in a pool this winter. I did see a few bees dead in there during the first few weeks of installation. But that's been a couple months ago now.

I read a tip in a Norwegian beekeeping magazine: If you use a bowl with water, you could put some cloth on top "floating" on the water. The bees will then have somewhere to stand while sucking the water and are not so likely to drown. Using some floating wood under the cloth will help if it sinks too low.

If you use a bowl with water, you could put some cloth on top "floating" on the water. The bees will then have somewhere to stand while sucking the water and are not so likely to drown. Using some floating wood under the cloth will help if it sinks too low.

I got this idea from a bee keeper. He and I both have large cattle watter tanks that auto refill so he said just put a piece of 2x4 in it and the bees will land on it to drink. He also said the bees dont bother the cows and the cows dont bother the bees. Bye :D

Anonymous

:) I like the water barrel Idea. I'd put it under one of my eve troughs to get filled up every time it rains and it would still be close to the house to be filled with a hose when we don't get rain. I saw a simular set up for watering gardens.I use a 2 gallon rubber dish with small rocks in it set 8 feet fron my row of hives. Works real well since the girls have trhe rocks as a perch to stand on, they don't drown.

Brushy Mountain was selling Bee Aquafiers but they are now in their bargain barn. It was basically a plastic container, you fill it with water, place some floats in it (pool noodle cut into 1" or so sections), thin silk type cloth draps over the container and rests on the noodle sections, and if you have a lid you can cut a big hole in the lid and snap it over the cloth that way the cloth does not fall into the container. It was called Eli's Bee Aquafier. I thought the cut up pool noodle was pretty neat idea!

Many of these ideas are standing water which is likely to breed mosquitoes and/or algae and slime.

I use a 1 gallon per hour dripper connected to a hose. The dripper is between the rocks in the photo. The dripper is set on top of a flat of planting peat moss. Excess water drips out the bottom of the flat, onto the ground, and waters surrounding plants. Nothing is wasted, no algae, no slime, no mosquitoes, and no objectionable smell that a human can smell. The smell of the peat moss seems to attract the bees though.